The Evening Star WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 18, 1931. GATLINS.

Evening Star, Issue 20721, 18 February 1931, Page 8

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 18, 1931. GATLINS.

It is not surprising that the latest visit to our hinterland, organised by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, was so exceedingly well patronised by business men. Between twenty and thirty years ago the Gatlins district was a name far more frequently under notice than now. The principal reason was that there existed the Gatlins Railway League, a particularly alert and pertinacious body, with whose useful activities the name of the late Mr D. M. Fea will be readily recalled by the older generation. Before the advent of the railway this district provided a vivid example of the hardships associated with pioneering work. The whole area, practically without exception, was heavily timbered with virgin bush. And it was blessed or afflicted with the very heavy rainfall precipitation usually associated with dense forest on rangy country fringing a sea-coast. For the most part the soil was fertile and rather heavy, and as in the early stages of opening up such country sawmilling was the outstanding industry, and the bullock wagon the predominating form of transport, the state of the roads can easily be imagined. Gatlins mud achieved a fame which has not yet entirely died down. It exercised a very arresting influence on progress in more senses than one. A few bravo spirits at first went to Gatlins to carve homes out of the bush. Family life under such conditions verged on the impossible at intervals neither short nor infrequent. Accounts of the disabilities which might lead to failure to redeem a land possessing obvious and valuable resources—not alone in the matter of timber, hut in respect of fish and fowl, let alone what cultivation would return when the plough followed the axe—gathered force until a delegation was organised in Dunedin to investigate in person. It was, if we recollect aright, the first precursor of those (held at too long intervals, we believe) which culminated in the pleasant invasion just concluded by over a hundred Dunedin visitors. That was nearly thirty years ago. There were no motor cars then; there were no roads for them to traverse, merely bullock and sledge tracks. It was the ‘Star’s’ good fortune that it despatched with that expedition a youthful and able reporter on whom so great an impression was made by what he saw and learned by indefatigable inquiry that he wrote a series of articles, widely read and appreciated, which brought and kept the

name of Gatlins prominently before the public. From tliat clay the reading and railroading of this outpost of Otago became a matter of interest to Dunedin people. The Gatlins Railway League commanded general support, and gradually the railheads moved beyond Owaka, past the shore of the tidal Gatlins Lake, reached Honipapa, climbed Table Hill into the M'Lennan Valley, struck the coast at Papatowai, and ascended the Tahakopa River a mile or two to the terminus of that name. Tt was a great achievement. It may bo urged that the railway line does not pay at present. Last year its working showed a net loss of £2,230, or, with interest added, of £23,153. Going back year by vear, however, one discovers that the Gatlins line was a welcome absentee from the list of non-paying developmental linos which for a timo received subsidies from the Consolidated Fund. In other words, the lino long ago reached a stage at which it paid working expenses and interest on cost of construction, and its present declension from that happy state is unfortunately common to our railway system as a whole. The district is progressing, and will progress, and it is highly probable that, given proper business control of the railways, the railway revenue from the Gatlins line wilt so mount as to mako it again a valuable asset. Of its developmental value there never has been and cannot ho any question whatever. Along with railway facilities the reading of the district has made great strides. A visit that once would have taken days from Balelutha, with the likelihood of the buggy being hogged more than once, can now be made with ease from Dunedin and back in one dayin a car. And a good arterial road passes through country that presents a. wonderful contrast with what it was thirty or even twenty years ago. Between Romahnpa and Owaka one sees paddocks so heavily stocked with owes and lambs as to provoke comparison with the most favoured parts of Southland, or with dairy cattle so sleek and well bred as to justify the appellation of “ the Taranaki of the south.” Clearing the hush and the establishment of permanent pasture lias worked a transformation —even, some aver, in respect of the climate. It is no exaggeration to say that so far only the fringe has been touched. There remain great areas of forest. One of the district’s best known sawmillers impressed on the Dunedin delegation the great asset there is in the beech forests. It is possible that the value of beech is nnder-estirnated by most people. There are beeches and beeches. Their varieties are said by foresters to he legion, duo to hybridisation through long ages. But timber experts are finding increasing use for the best specimens, and those uses are by no means confined to such humble purposes as casings for fruit or other produce. It is, however, rather disappointing to find those in the best position to exploit this potential wealth declaring that they cannot move without tariff protection. One would be sorry to think that the upshot of such a visit as the Chamber of Commerce’s present one should be that members return to town merely to advocate yet another protective duty. We gather that this recourse was advocated not merely in respect of beech, but of the native timber milling industry in general. The tendency of commodity prices to-day is to fall. Tim timber milling industry must adapt itself and lower costs of production. Labour will have to readjust itself both in respect of award wages and output per man ; and Capital will have to come up to date in the provision of modern plant and economic methods. Otherwise the decline of the native timber milling industry will not bo arrested. Timber is too high in price in New Zealand already, and further protection would only make matters worse. For we have little faith in the time-worn denial of protection, increasing prices to the consumer.